57 pages • 1 hour read
Ann PatchettThe Patron Saint of Liars
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1992A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 3, Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “Son”
Part 3, Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section discusses the death of a baby and a death by drowning.
The third part of the novel is told from Son’s point of view.
Son reflects on the first month of his marriage to Rose and his continued efforts to keep her from naming their child “Cecilia.” He learns that despite her small size and their age difference—he’s 45 and she’s 24—Rose can hold her own against him and does what she wants to when she wants to. He’s spent a long time believing nothing new would ever happen in his life, and meeting and marrying Rose has changed that for him.
Angie goes into labor, and Son and Rose drive her to the hospital. Angie goes into a room to have her baby, and Son and Rose remain outside in the waiting room. Rose is upset and has a hard time sitting down to wait. Later, a doctor comes to tell them that Angie’s baby died because its umbilical cord was wrapped around its neck and the doctors found out too late. Rose asks if this could have been prevented, and the doctor tells her that if they had known, they could have performed a caesarian section.
Rose goes to see Angie, and Angie asks her if she already knew about the baby’s fate. Angie says that this would explain why Sister Evangeline acted so strange and sad after she told her the gender of her child. Rose denies knowing anything, but Angie tells Rose she should’ve told her about her baby’s fate earlier. Before Rose leaves, Angie asks her to take and use the box of baby clothes she made for her daughter.
A week later, Rose goes into labor. For the first and last time, Son thinks about the baby’s biological father, thinking about the fact that the man doesn’t know his daughter is being born. Son is determined to be a good father to Rose’s baby. After the baby has been born, he goes in to see them. Rose tells him that she has already filled out the birth certificate—something that women typically aren’t allowed to do. She has named the baby Cecilia.
Next, Son goes to the hospital nursery to try to find the baby, but he cannot find a baby that looks like Rose. A nurse helps him and hands Cecilia to him. He is surprised that the baby looks nothing like Rose.
To celebrate Cecilia’s birth, Son decides he wants to get a tattoo. He’s heard that a woman named Ma Mamie in Owensboro gives great tattoos, and he goes to find her. When he gets to her house, a young girl answers the door and identifies herself as Ma Mamie. Son doesn’t believe her, but she explains that her mother was Ma Mamie, and when her mother died, she became the next Ma Mamie. After some arguing, he agrees to let her tattoo him. He gets Cecilia’s birth date tattooed below his original “Cecilia” tattoo. The young girl offers to touch up his original tattoo and then begins tattooing a rose under the birth date. Right then, an older woman comes into the house—the real Ma Mamie—and starts yelling at Son and her daughter when she sees her daughter tattooing him. Realizing this is the real Ma Mamie, Son runs out of the house.
Part 3, Chapter 2 Summary
Son reflects on his lost love, the original Cecilia. Despite loving her deeply when he was younger, he doesn’t think about her much in the present. His daughter, Cecilia, now goes by the name Sissy. Sissy looks nothing like Rose, which leads to her being a constant reminder of her biological father.
Son reveals more information about the original Cecilia. She was his on-again, off-again girlfriend when he was younger. She would always end their relationship, leaving Son devastated and broken, but when she was with him, he was ecstatic. Cecilia was extremely petite, and people found it funny when she was with Son because he was so tall. Despite her size, Cecilia was confident and forceful. She was well-liked, even by Son’s family, who forgave her even though she broke his heart so often.
After Pearl Harbor, Son decided to enlist. When he told Cecilia this, she decided that they would marry when he got back from basic training. Son tried to get her to marry him right then, but she said she needed time to plan a proper wedding. Even though Son hadn’t yet graduated high school, he wanted to enlist immediately. However, he had to wait to go to basic training because so many people had enlisted. When a spot suddenly opened up for him at Parris Island three days later, he prepared to go. He gave Cecilia an engagement ring, and then his father drove him to a bus stop in Nashville so that he could travel to South Carolina. Son felt full of promise and noticed that Cecilia enjoyed being the fiancée of an enlisted man.
Before he left town, Cecilia and Son celebrated New Year’s Eve early. Cecilia told him that her New Year’s resolution was to be the best wife to him. Son was so happy that he could think of no resolutions for himself. When he prepared to leave several days later, Cecilia was upset and made him promise to write to her. In the car, Son’s father remarked on how well Cecilia was handling the situation and said that Son was lucky to be with her. Son agreed wholeheartedly.
The first three weeks of basic training were tough but unremarkable. Son was good at following orders, so he was able to get through difficult tasks relatively unscathed. He bonded with the other men in his company, and he showed off Cecilia’s picture to them. They were all impressed and were jealous that he had someone waiting back home for him.
Soon after New Year’s, the company got their first “Cinderella liberty,” which was time they could go off base, but they had to be back before midnight or they’d get in serious trouble. Unsure of what to do with their free time, they went shopping. Several girls tried to flirt with Son, but he ignored them. He got dinner with his friends and then went to a bar. There, they met a man named Louder, who was a Marine. He had a tattoo and told the boys that they couldn’t be Marines without tattoos. So, they all decided they needed tattoos, and Louder took them to a parlor, despite it being close to midnight. Son decided to get “Cecilia” tattooed on his arm. One of the boys in the company decided to play a joke on Son and got “Cecilia” tattooed on his shoulder. Everyone but Son found it funny. Son lunged at him, picking him up. The tattoo artist threatened to call the Shore Patrol, and the boys ran out of the shop, laughing.
The next day, Son was assigned guard duty from midnight until 4:00 am. He didn’t mind the assignment and used the time to think about Cecilia. In the middle of his shift, a jeep drove up, and Son instructed the driver to get out. It was a corporal of the guard, Bill Lovell, who had come to have a smoke. The two smoked together and talked. Bill decided to show Son his .45 gun. However, the gun discharged by accident, and the bullet went through Son’s left knee. As Son lay on the ground, he and Billy looked at each other, realizing that both their careers would be severely affected by this incident.
Part 3, Chapter 3 Summary
Three days after Sissy’s birth, Rose returns to work. Son is unhappy about this since he believes she should stay home with Sissy. As Rose cooks breakfast at Saint Elizabeth’s, Sister Evangeline holds Sissy. Rose has arranged for June to take care of Sissy during the day as well, a fact that infuriates Son. Son takes Sissy to June’s house, and June fawns over the baby. When he expresses his frustration that Rose isn’t taking care of the baby herself, June tells him that she’s happy to spend time with Sissy.
The next day, Mother Corinne confronts Son about Rose continuing to work in the kitchen. She doesn’t like it and wants her to stay home. Son reminds himself that to deal with Mother Corinne, he must pretend she’s not a nun; he tells her that she should be thankful for Rose since she isn’t taking a salary and is working extremely hard. Mother Corinne agrees to let Rose continue working there, but she says she will not pay her and that Sissy cannot be at Saint Elizabeth’s. Son tells her that when she wants to fire Rose, she should talk to her directly instead of talking to him.
As Sissy grows up, she spends more time at Saint Elizabeth’s. The girls try to mother her and spend a lot of time doting on her. However, Sissy still feels a strong attachment to Rose, seeking her out when she’s hurt or sad. Son notes that Rose never seems to have time for Sissy. When he asks Rose why she decided to keep Sissy if she doesn’t want to spend time with her, she gets angry, explaining that she kept Sissy because she is her daughter. The fight escalates with Rose asking Son if he wants them to leave. He tells her he doesn’t, but Rose goes to sleep with Sissy that night. The next day, Sissy cannot stop telling people that Rose slept with her.
As Sissy gets older, she starts to get attached to the girls at Saint Elizabeth’s and sulks when they leave after having their babies. Right before she turns five, a new girl named Alice arrives. Sissy becomes very attached to Alice. They spend a lot of time together, planning adventures and playing. Some weeks after, Alice approaches Son because Sissy has been asking her to teach her to swim the following summer. However, Alice will be gone by then. She wonders if she’s inadvertently hurt Sissy by becoming so close to her. Son tells her that it will be hard, but it’ll be harder if she stops playing with Sissy. Alice agrees.
When Son goes into the kitchen later that day, Angie is there with Rose. Angie has married her high school sweetheart and has a baby with him—a son. She is in a much better place mentally than the last time they saw her. Sissy and Alice come in, and Angie is surprised at how big Sissy is. Sissy asks Rose and Son if she can spend the night with Alice, and they agree. Once Sissy and Alice leave, Angie remarks that Sissy must look like Thomas because she doesn’t look like Rose. Son has never heard Sissy’s biological father’s name before this, and he spends the rest of the day wishing he didn’t know it.
As Alice’s due date approaches, everyone tries to prepare Sissy for it. Alice exchanges addresses with Son and gets increasingly upset. She goes into labor in the middle of the night and leaves. Rose and Son explain to Sissy that Alice won’t come back to Saint Elizabeth’s. Sissy becomes extremely upset, saying that she wants her “mother,” and she cries harder when Rose says she is right there.
Part 3, Chapter 4 Summary
Son reflects on what happened after he got shot on Parris Island. He was medically discharged, and his parents came to pick him up in South Carolina. They told him how worried everyone back home had been, especially Cecilia. Son felt like he let Cecilia down by not fighting in the war, and he worried that she would leave him. His parents reassured him that everything would be fine and that she would marry him.
When they arrived home, it was late, and Cecilia was asleep on the couch. She and Son briefly talked, but then his mother drove her home. When he woke up the next morning, he felt frustrated to be back home. He told his mother he was too old to go back to school, which she disagreed with. Son’s father helped him bathe before Cecilia’s visit, and he noticed the tattoo. He remarked that Son accomplished a lot in his short time away from home. When Cecilia arrived, Son realized she was going to leave him. Though she didn’t state it, he was so used to her leaving him that he could see the signs. He tried to get her to plan the wedding, but she brushed him off.
Son reflects on the fact that for a long time, he couldn’t understand why things ended the way they did with Cecilia, but Sissy’s birth helped him see how all these previous events led him to where he currently is.
Son used his leg injury to avoid going out in public. His school allowed him to work at home, and Cecilia brought his work to him each afternoon. However, she began to arrive later and later in the day, and she kept putting off the wedding. One day, she got frustrated with him and asked him why he couldn’t go pick up his books himself. She also told him that she thought he should go reenlist. When he asked her why she was still with him, she told him that she didn’t want everyone in town to say she broke up with him because he got shot. She revealed that she hated the situation they were in and felt like she was stuck in a marriage despite not being married yet. Later, Son graduated high school and was encouraged by his principal to go to college.
On a hot day that summer, Cecilia came to visit, and Son’s father begged her to get Son out of the house. He suggested they go swimming at the quarry, so Cecilia drove him there. Son took his shirt off, and Cecilia saw his tattoo for the first time; this made her furious, and she went swimming by herself. Son read for a while and then looked up to watch Cecilia swim. He noticed that she was beginning to drown. Son hesitated but eventually went to rescue her, despite still being in a brace, and found her at the bottom of the water. He carried her onto land and called for help; a man who went to their church heard him and came to help. He took Son and Cecilia to a doctor’s office, but Cecilia was already dead.
Son was once again in the papers for his heroic attempt to save Cecilia. However, he struggled with Cecilia’s death and wondered if he could have done anything different or if he killed her by not helping her sooner. With time, Son could begin to forget about his bad times with Cecilia. However, he felt unable to continue living at home and left to explore the world.
He hitchhiked around, and on his way to Owensboro, the car he was hitchhiking in broke down in Habit. Some people in town suggested he go to Saint Elizabeth’s to find work. He went to June’s house, mistaking it for Saint Elizabeth’s. They became fast friends, and she sent him to Saint Elizabeth’s for work. At first, he was shocked by how ornate Saint Elizabeth’s was. He met Sister Evangeline, who was the Mother Superior at the time. She invited him to stay for dinner and then offered him work. Sister Evangeline could tell he had been through tragedy and attempted to comfort him.
Part 3, Chapters 1-4 Analysis
Son’s devastating relationship with Cecilia reveals a lot about why he clings so firmly to his relationship with Sissy. In Son’s experience, love is unpredictable and fleeting, which is why he appreciates every moment with his daughter. Cecilia and Rose are similar in some ways, particularly in how they take Son for granted and treat him in a casually cruel manner. Cecilia breaks his heart often but is confident he will always take her back; she thinks nothing of hurting his feelings. Similarly, Rose disregards his appeal to not name her baby Cecilia; she in fact goes out of her way to do so, despite knowing that this would offend and hurt him. Since Son doesn’t want to be reminded of his past relationship with Cecilia, he refuses to call his daughter Cecilia, instead giving her a familial nickname.
Cecilia and Rose also share strong personalities. Son describes Cecilia as a “powerhouse […] who [is] calling the shots on things” (171). This is similar to how Rose takes over at Saint Elizabeth’s during and after her pregnancy. However, one major difference between the two women is their relationship to appearances. Rose, despite focusing on her beauty with her mother, eschews that when she gets to Saint Elizabeth’s; she no longer cares what people think of her. Cecilia, however, enjoys the performative aspect of her relationship with Son more than she likes him as a person. When Son goes to basic training, he leaves her as “a war bride […] [which is] the best thing she could have hoped for” (177). It is only when Son enlists that Cecilia feels ready to commit to him because their relationship will give her social status and attention. After Son gets back from basic training injured, Cecilia eventually reveals that she resents Son for not fighting in the war, claiming that she can’t end her relationship with him because “everyone in town [will] say [she] broke off [her] engagement because [he] got shot” (231). She cares immensely about what people think of her, unlike Rose.
When Cecilia sees Son’s tattoo for the first time, she is furious that he would tattoo her name on his body, telling him that it’s her name and he doesn’t have a right to put it on his body. In many ways, this is similar to how Rose names Sissy: She names her daughter just because she sees the name on Son’s body on their first night together. As a result, both Son and Rose take Cecilia’s power away by claiming her name.
Son struggles with the water after Cecilia’s drowning, especially because it is never clear whether or not he could have saved her if he had acted sooner. After Cecilia gets upset about Son’s tattoo, she tells him not to look at her, which has deadly results for her. When he does eventually look at her, he sees her drowning and watches for too long before acting. While she drowns, Son “[takes] a full minute to watch her suffer and watch her want [him] as [he] had wanted her all [his] life” (235). He enjoys feeling power in the relationship for the first time; this causes him to hesitate in saving her, leading to her death. Son never tells anyone about how he delayed saving her—in fact, even the newspapers praise him for rushing to Cecilia’s aid despite his leg injury. However, this lie of omission haunts him, which highlights the theme of The Complexity of Truth and Lies.
Yet Son’s relationship with water changes once he gets to Saint Elizabeth’s. In one of his initial interactions with Sister Evangeline, he helps her wash the dishes. As Sister Evangeline tells him she can see he’s experienced trauma, she tells him that Cecilia’s death wasn’t his fault. The two are still washing dishes, and “she put[s] her hands down in the water and [holds his] hands” (247). In this way, Sister Evangeline absolves Son of his guilt regarding Cecilia’s death and rebirths him, giving him a new life at Saint Elizabeth’s.
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By Ann Patchett
